58 replies to this topic

[steve6375]

In the screenshot you linked to, you can see that the HDD is detected as HITACHI HTS505432B9A300 (S2) - this means it has read the model of the HDD and that it is on SATA port #2. Also you can see it shows the CD/DVD as HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GT20F (PM) which implies it has an IDE DVDRAM drive as Primary Master. However, against the USB device your screenshot shows no USB model number - so that implies that you have not plugged in the USB pen and then switched it on and gone into the BIOS, or there is a problem with that USB port. Did you try all USB ports?
You should also see the USB Pen LED flash when it is detected by the BIOS and enumerated (e.g. the BIOS gets it model number and device type and checks to see if it is bootable, etc.) - from your description it does not appear to be doing this, however as the LED does flash it sound like it is getting power.
Have you tested the Windows install DVD on your other working PC? Does it boot?

I think what you should do now is connect the HDD to your other system and copy the contents of the Recovery partition to your other system.
1. Connect the HDD to your 'good' system and boot to Windows
2. Go to Admin command prompt and type DISKPART
3. Type LIST DISK and then SELECT DISK x (where x is the number of the TOSH systems drive)
4. Type LIST PAR to list the partitions
5. Type SELECT PAR x where x is the partition number of the restore ptn
6. Type DETAIL PAR to see details of that partition - I am guessing it is set to type 27h
7. if so, type SET ID=07 to set the type to NTFS instead of hidden NTFS
8. Type Exit
You should now be able to see the file contents of the partition in Explorer and copy any files and folders. Let us know what you find.

[dr69]

In the screenshot you linked to, you can see that the HDD is detected as HITACHI HTS505432B9A300 (S2) - this means it has read the model of the HDD and that it is on SATA port #2. Also you can see it shows the CD/DVD as HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GT20F (PM) which implies it has an IDE DVDRAM drive as Primary Master. However, against the USB device your screenshot shows no USB model number - so that implies that you have not plugged in the USB pen and then switched it on and gone into the BIOS, or there is a problem with that USB port. Did you try all USB ports?
You should also see the USB Pen LED flash when it is detected by the BIOS and enumerated (e.g. the BIOS gets it model number and device type and checks to see if it is bootable, etc.) - from your description it does not appear to be doing this, however as the LED does flash it sound like it is getting power.
Have you tested the Windows install DVD on your other working PC? Does it boot?

I think what you should do now is connect the HDD to your other system and copy the contents of the Recovery partition to your other system.
1. Connect the HDD to your 'good' system and boot to Windows
2. Go to Admin command prompt and type DISKPART
3. Type LIST DISK and then SELECT DISK x (where x is the number of the TOSH systems drive)
4. Type LIST PAR to list the partitions
5. Type SELECT PAR x where x is the partition number of the restore ptn
6. Type DETAIL PAR to see details of that partition - I am guessing it is set to type 27h
7. if so, type SET ID=07 to set the type to NTFS instead of hidden NTFS
8. Type Exit
You should now be able to see the file contents of the partition in Explorer and copy any files and folders. Let us know what you find.

The install DVD works fine on the other PCs, and it does boot. and the Tosh in the Bios doesnt show the serial or anything just the "USB" like you see in the pic no matter what. ill try it again later on and it only has 2 usb ports.
ok so let me get this clear:

1. Connect Tosh's HDD to my XP system and Boot my PC.
2. got o start-->Run-->CMD and type: DISKPART.
3. type LIST DISK then SELECT DISK "X" which ion this case is "1"
4. type LIST PAR
5. type SELECT PAR "X" --->>where x is gonna be the partition that has the RECOVERY or HIDDEN partition? <<-----
6. type DETAIL PAR. if the PAR is: 27h then
7. type SET ID=07
8. type exit

then if successful in finding and copying everything from the partition then should i revert the PAR to 27h? or just leave it unhidden?
thanks ill try that tomorrow, is kinda late now

have a nice day/night
Thanks

[steve6375]

XP doesn't have the SET command. Boot from the Win7 DVD and go to the command prompt to use those commands.

[dr69]

im sorry im just waiting for my friends PC that im gonna borrow i think it has either VISTA or 7 so i can connect the HDD to it and execute those commands then ill post the results...
stay tuned

[steve6375]

You can use Easeus Partition manager (Home edition) under XP which his free, to unhide the partition or change it to Type 7 (NTFS) if it was 27h before...

[dr69]

You can use Easeus Partition manager (Home edition) under XP which his free, to unhide the partition or change it to Type 7 (NTFS) if it was 27h before...

so if i use Easeus Partition Manager Home Edition or PRO i will be able to Convert Type 27h (hidden) into type 7 (Unhidden) so i can be able to find and copy whatever is on the hidden partition to my XP PC and then turn the Partition back to 27h (hidden) again?
also i think this is the software you talking about right? http://www.partition...com/product.htm is Easeus Partition Master
sorry for correcting you i just wanna make sure i get the right software, so i can successfully perform and achieve the needed task.
thanks again

[RoyM]

Sorry for buttin' in, I did not see Steve6375 Online

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[steve6375]

http://www.partition...om/personal.htm

[dr69]

ok Steve6375 i have the Easeus Partition Master Pro Already installed on my Win XP SP3 Desktop PC.
ive never used this software before so now i connected the Tosh HDD to it, this is what it displays regarding the Tosh HDD:

https://www.dropbox....48/IMAG1576.jpg

The Tosh HDD is the Disk 2 (MBR)
so, as you can see it does say hidden, so what do i do to get it visible now? cause i dont wanna do anything wrong and mess up the Hdd or the RECOVEY partition since i can see that hopefully the PRe-installed OS is there.

[dr69]

ok when i select the HDDRECOVERY and then select the "Explore Partition" from the left Panel this is what comes up:

https://www.dropbox....af/IMAG1577.jpg
and then i selected the "View Properties" and in the Popup i selected 'partition Info' and the 'partition type' says the following:

partition type: 07 (Hex)NTFS, so i remember you told me to change it to 7h right, but it is already 7h so where do i go from here?

Edited by dr69, 31 July 2012 - 07:40 PM.

[steve6375]

weird, it should offer you the chance to unhide it when you select the partition, but the latest version does not seem to offer the option on some partitions???
Maybe we need to change tack - can you run RMPrepUSB and select the HDD drive and then click on Drive Info and post the first sector data from 1b0h to 1f0h - that will show the partition table - then you could later use the Disk Doctor to change that byte.
In RMPrepUSB - hit Ctrl.D (make sure correct drive is selected) - set start=0, set No Sectors=1, click Sequential Read, click Display and Edit Buffer, change byte at 01xx to 07 (address TBD) in edit window, click WRITE USING BUFFER, exit. You need to be very careful when doing this that you have the correct disk selected!

[dr69]

weird, it should offer you the chance to unhide it when you select the partition, but the latest version does not seem to offer the option on some partitions???
Maybe we need to change tack - can you run RMPrepUSB and select the HDD drive and then click on Drive Info and post the first sector data from 1b0h to 1f0h - that will show the partition table - then you could later use the Disk Doctor to change that byte.
In RMPrepUSB - hit Ctrl.D (make sure correct drive is selected) - set start=0, set No Sectors=1, click Sequential Read, click Display and Edit Buffer, change byte at 01xx to 07 (address TBD) in edit window, click WRITE USING BUFFER, exit. You need to be very careful when doing this that you have the correct disk selected!

on yeah on the left side there is a "Unhide PArtition" choice when i highlight/Select the HDDRECOVERY...
but what really intrigues me is that even my own XP NTFS says to be: 7h and my XP NTFS is not hidden

Oh crap im so sorry in the last picture i had the wrong partition selected when i took the Pic but this is the right partition selected and i even put the mouse over the selection you mention:

https://www.dropbox....rl/IMAG1580.jpg
and this is the partition type info of the Hidden HDDRECOVERY partition:
https://www.dropbox....hh/IMAG1579.jpg
as you can see it says type 07 Hex.

also if you notice the pic the hidden HDDRECOVERY is set as Primary and the empty/unallocated space is set as logical...

Edited by dr69, 31 July 2012 - 08:09 PM.

[steve6375]

well it must be hidden, otherwise it would not have a * and show you the Unhide option.
Can you use RMPrepUSB DriveInfo to just see if it is set to 27h or 17h or what, so we can set it back if we need to later. Then use EASeus to unhide it and click on Apply to do it. You should then be able to see the partition in Windows Explorer (may need to reboot ???)

[dr69]

well it must be hidden, otherwise it would not have a * and show you the Unhide option.
Can you use RMPrepUSB DriveInfo to just see if it is set to 27h or 17h or what, so we can set it back if we need to later. Then use EASeus to unhide it and click on Apply to do it. You should then be able to see the partition in Windows Explorer (may need to reboot ???)

I'm sorry how do i go about making RMPrepUSB see the HDD cause the drive is connected and when i opened RMPrepUSB nothing shows on the Drives it just says: 0 Drives.
Also i noticed that RMPrepUSB has the saved settings from the last time you instructed me to use it, just so you know.
thanks

Edited by dr69, 31 July 2012 - 08:21 PM.

[steve6375]

Settings - Use ALLDRIVES mode or CTRL-F5

[dr69]

Settings - Use ALLDRIVES mode or CTRL-F5

ok thanks i did and i selected the Tosh HDD and this is what came up when i clicked on Drive Info:
https://www.dropbox....dk/IMAG1581.jpg
and close up
https://www.dropbox....a1/IMAG1582.jpg
RMPrepUSB did warn me that i was selected a LARGE Storage DEvice.
so what do you think we can do now?

[steve6375]

0 is correct for start of drive - so what does it list in Notepad afterwards?

[dr69]

0 is correct for start of drive - so what does it list in Notepad afterwards?

oh ok sorry i was clicking CAnel after that ok this is it:
https://www.dropbox....s5v/USBInfo.Txt

why does it say at the end of the document that the drive has 4 partitions when we can clearly only see two: the unallocated space and the Hidden one? is that normal? is that ok?

Edited by dr69, 31 July 2012 - 08:56 PM.

[steve6375]

type 17 = OK, so Easeus will unhide this if you use it now.

[dr69]

type 17 = OK, so Easeus will unhide this if you use it now.

ok so click Unhide partition on the Easeus and then after that what do i do? so i can keep rolling
im gonna be waiting for your instructions before i continue with the Unhiding of the partition so i can know what to do after that beforehand

Edited by dr69, 31 July 2012 - 09:48 PM.

[steve6375]

click on Apply - then once it is unhidden, you should copy all files onto your main system HDD so it is safe.
Also, have a look in the backup folder ZZIMAGES to see if there is a backup file in there and see what extension it has.

[dr69]

click on Apply - then once it is unhidden, you should copy all files onto your main system HDD so it is safe.
Also, have a look in the backup folder ZZIMAGES to see if there is a backup file in there and see what extension it has.

ok when i clicked 'unhide partition' it says this:
Unhiding this partition may cause the drive letter to change. this operation will only take effect after restarting the computer. are you sure you want to unhide the partition now?
Options: HELP Ok CANCEL

these are the files in ZZIMAGES:
https://www.dropbox....oh/IMAG1583.jpg
And scrolled down to dispay the last one:
https://www.dropbox....rv/IMAG1584.jpg

unhidding done, now i can see it in explorer, files copied to my XP system.
now what do i do? how do i go about trying to reinstall this to the unallocated partition?
sorry for asking so many questions...
thanks

Edited by dr69, 31 July 2012 - 11:05 PM.

[steve6375]

OK, try this.
First create a large NTFS Primary partition in the empty space at the beginning of the drive.
Next select the 2nd Recovery ptn and right-click and choose 'Make Active'.
Apply the changes.
Now put the HDD back in the original system and see if it boots to the recovery partition and see if you can re-install...

[dr69]

OK, try this.
First create a large NTFS Primary partition in the empty space at the beginning of the drive.
Next select the 2nd Recovery ptn and right-click and choose 'Make Active'.
Apply the changes.
Now put the HDD back in the original system and see if it boots to the recovery partition and see if you can re-install...

ok, so finally it booted into the Setup but now it says this:
https://www.dropbox....y9/IMAG1601.jpg
does this mean that even my HDDRECOVERY partition is gonna be erased? should i continue from here or should i quit the installation and hide the partition again?
what should i do?
please respond ASAP cause now im exited to see it running again.
thanks

Edited by dr69, 02 August 2012 - 08:47 PM.

[steve6375]

I don't know, but as it is the recovery s/w, it should restore Windows. All you can do is try it.